by James hmv London, 23/01/2015Bio"Like the legend of the Phoenix, I've just eaten a whole packet of chocolate HobNobs..."
Editor, hmv.com

hmv.com presents... Albums Of 2015: #23 Snow Patrol

Every day during January we’re going to be previewing the albums that are going to be hitting the shelves in 2015. Most will definitely come out, some probably will, and some we really hope finally see the light of day (we’re looking at you Adele…). Today it's Snow Patrol...

A Little Background…

Since Snow Patrol's sixth album, 2011's Fallen Empires, the band's frontman Gary Lightbody has been keeping himself busy with side project Tired Pony, a 'supergroup' that counts former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and Belle and Sebastian drummer Richard Colburn as members, as well as producer Garrett 'Jacknife' Lee. Releasing the second Tired Pony album in 2013, Lightbody had at that time expected a seventh Snow Patrol album to be ready for sometime in 2014, which would have represented the band's 20th anniversary in the music business.

Unfortunately for the band's devoted fans, by the time his side project were performing at last year's Bushmills Live festival on the Northern Irish coastline, Lightbody was already resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to be ready before the end of the year, describing himself as “gutted” that it would arrive too late to pop the cork on the anniversary champagne.

Since then though there has been very little in the way of news about album no. 7, or Snow Patrol in general. Save for a couple of low-key solo shows towards the back end of last year and a new track written for the film Divergent as far back as February 2014, it's all gone very quiet.

What Will It Sound Like?

The aforementioned Divergent track, 'I Won't Let You Go', is the only recent music to go on here and it was hardly a radical departure from the Snow Patrol formula. On the one hand, they're not the most experimental band out there, so it's difficult to imagine them returning with a major change of direction, but the lack of any news over the last few months could mean the band are taking time out to regroup. Lightbody did say he was struggling with writer's block in 2012, but whether or not that's the reason for the delay we can only speculate.

Who's Producing It? Are There Any Big-Name Guests?

We don't know as yet, although given former collaborations with Jacknife Lee he seems a likely choice for production duties, but as for guests, who knows?

Will It Really Come Out This Year? And When?

The band's fans will certainly hope so, and even though four years is hardly an age to wait for some for some bands – we're looking at you, The Avalanches - it does represent the longest gap between albums for Snow Patrol. Again though, no news is... well, no news.